


Old Soul

by werit



Category: Undertale
Genre: Angst, Gen, POV Second Person, Reader is Frisk (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:20:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24902242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werit/pseuds/werit
Summary: As you begin to leave Gerson's shop, he stops you."You might have that striped shirt on," he says, "but'cha can't fool me. Those are old eyes--I've seen one too many a pair in the mirror myself, ha!"If only he knew how right he was.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	1. Chapter 1

It's been nearly seventy years since the barrier fell.

Humans, as you find out over the years, do not age as gracefully as monsters. You're not the same, physically, as you used to be. Whenever you move, you can feel your joints aching, and you always find yourself complaining internally about how you used to have so much energy. Your soul, however, still burns with determination, and that has kept you going through the underground, through bringing Chara back (oh, god, what a story--too bad you have such a terrible memory), and through the relatively minuscule horrors of life on the surface.

It's kept you going until now.

You lay in your hospital bed, drugged out of your goddamn mind, while the nurse checks your vitals anxiously. You've come to terms with it for years now--your time is nearly up, due to a series of cancers that even magic couldn't treat. There's a knock on your door that you barely process, and the nurse lets Chara and Toriel inside.

"Heh," Chara says, and you barely hear it, "You know, way back then, I _did_ say that I'd last longer than you on the surface."

"Chara! That's rude!" Toriel scolds.

"Mom. I am seventy-nine years old. If there's ever a time to be making mortality-related jokes, it's now. You know, when I've still got the chance."

You begin to drift to the sound of your family's bickering.

...

When you wake up, your head is a bit more clear, and so is the pain. You open your eyes groggily. Everyone-- meaning Toriel, Asgore, Chara, and the Skelebros--is here, and they look concerned. That can't be good.

_Hey_ ,you sign, instantly getting the room's attention.

"Argh! Don't scare me like that again!" Chara snarls, "You bastard." Their choice of words has, unsurprisingly, not gotten more civil with age.

Asgore shifts his hands nervously. "You did give us a good scare," he says. "Stay in there, all right?"

_Glad to see you all._ _I'm... well I can't say I'm doing well._

"Are you ok?" Toriel addresses you, and you find yourself hesitant to answer.

_I'm... ready,_ you reply slowly.

"hey kiddo," Sans drawls, and you groan.

_When are you gonna stop calling me kiddo?_ You protest.

"well, whenever you're gonna be older than me i guess."

You chuckle. _I, uh, might have some bad news for you on that front._

Papyrus breaks down into a dramatic weep. "I'LL MISS YOU, FRISK. WILL... WILL YOU SAY HELLO TO EVERYONE UP THERE FOR US."

_Of course. I l_ _ove you all. Take care of yourselves._

When they eventually stop fawning over you and leave, you find yourself, once again, falling asleep.

Falling away.

...

.

.

You cannot give up just yet...

Frisk! Stay determined!

.

.

...

As you fall, you feel the stale air rush past you.

_What the fuck?_ You think.

Wait, no.

_What the FUCK!?_ Chara screams inside of your head. _What the fuck happened? Why THE FUCK are we..._

You land, rather ungracefully, onto a familiar pile of yellow flowers, then both of you let out a soft groan of pain and despair.


	2. Chapter 2

You sit up. At first, you're surprised at the ease at which you move, then it hits you. God, you're fucking eight again, aren't you?

As if reading your thoughts, (which you suppose they are again, god this was weird back then and it's weird now) Chara groans. _Frisk? Please tell me you didn't do this on purpose. I swear..._

 _God no!_ You reply. As if you wanted to send everything back. It just, happened, like you were back in the Underground. Something wouldn't allow you to let go.

 _Okay, just checking all the bases here,_ Chara replies. You don't blame them. It's kinda, well, definitely a shitty situation they're stuck in. You're all back to square one, but for them... at least you have your own body. _Y'know, you can stop pretending this doesn't suck for you, too._

_What?_

_I know it must suck to have me in here, snooping in on your thoughts._

_No,_ you think, _it's just... I was ready, and now I'm back to the beginning. It feels like all we did, everything as an ambassador, as friends, as--as adults is gone_. _And that sucks more than anything right now._

 _Oh. Oh god._ Chara pauses, and you can feel them struggling. _I hadn't even--oh god._

_Need a minute?_

_Please, old timer -- but I guess that's not really accurate anymore, is it?_

_It was never accurate?_ You're only a month older than Chara-well, mentally, at least. _If anything, I should be the one calling you "Old Timer."_

_Oh god no. I was always young at heart._

A minute passes while you both catch your breath. Then, awkwardly, you both simultaneously realize that the other person probably don't need that much time to regain their energy anymore.

Neither of you mention it.

...

.

...

Eventually, you stand up with a groan. You instinctively _reach_ out, then are incredibly disappointed. _I've got BABY magic again,_ you complain.

_Well, duh. Back to square one, right?_

_Okay, that's rude. Just because I didn't think about it doesn't mean I can't still be upset. I miss being able to do the cool shit._ After a few moments with no reply, you walk (more briskly than you're used to) through the passage and the first arch.

 _Wait, Frisk?_ Chara butts in, Are _we... keeping this a secret again? Or are you going to tell people, like you wanted to, that one time._

You pause. That wasn't a question you were expecting--the only time you can remember "shaking things up" by telling about the Resets... Your memories are starting to come back, and odd as it is, you can't believe you'd ever forgotten anything about the most pivotal time in your life. It was the... eighth(ish?) reset, and you were considering telling the others about your power. To your surprise, you couldn't make up your mind--there was another voice in your head arguing against you, and for the first time, you realized you weren't alone in your head.

 _Frisk?_ Chara's voice in your head snaps you back. No more getting lost in the memory-past/temporal-future. To be completely honest, you can't imagine pretending to be an eight-year old again.

 _Maybe we should try to open up this time._ You start thinking. _Obviously not to Flowey, and I have a feeling that Toriel wouldn't take it so well. The next person we meet is... Sans._

 _Okay, I changed my mind,_ Chara butts in. _He will actually kill us if he finds out we've been resetting, especially before we get to the surface. Remember what he was gonna do last time, before Papyrus stopped him? He'll--_

 _I don't know if you were paying attention_ , you think over Chara, _but I just died. I don't really think mortality is a problem for us. Besides, we both still have the passwords, remember? He'll trust us, I'm sure._

_It's not his trust I'm worried about._

...

Flowey is in the center of the room. You feel Chara look away. You move on with the encounter anyway--it's not like there's anything else to do. As Flowey screams the same damn thing he always does, every RESET, you realize that Chara isn't just silent--they're holding in tears. You know better than to tease them about this topic.

When Toriel comes, you move on as soon as you can.

...

As you're escorted down the Ruins, holding Toriel's hand, you reach out to Chara. _You doing alright?_

Chara doesn't respond. _It's okay, you don't have to-_

 _I miss him._ Chara's thoughts come with a wave of hurt that makes your whole body shudder, and alerts Toriel.

"Are you cold, my child?"

You shake your head and give a grin. It doesn't reach your eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Flowey had gone missing about a year after you left--you don't know the date exactly. What you do remember is climbing back down into the mountain on your tenth birthday, and finding a single inanimate golden flower planted in the first room of the Ruins--the same room that Asriel had stayed in. You remember Chara sobbing for nearly a week afterwards, and then resolving to not waste a second of their new shot at existence.

They'd told Toriel, and (with the help of everyone) you had separated your SOUL from theirs in just six months.

Back to square one--both in terms of time shenanigans, and this damn puzzle. You gather your thoughts, wracking your old memories to try to remember the solutions to these old things. You really don't want to have to do this by trial-and-error.

 _You've gotta hit the blue, red, then green switches,_ Chara informs you, _It's, uh, written on the signs._

You feel like a total idiot, and you inform them of such.

_Eh, I don't blame you. It's been... it's been stressful._

...

.

...

When you arrive at Toriel's house, you (once again) take in the quaintness of the warm home among the lifeless ruins. When you're ushered inside, you realize that in the last timeline, although the house eventually got torn down to allow for evacuation, the furniture was saved--the chairs and table match the ones in your surface home. Looking at them... hurts.

Then again, so does everything else.

"My child?" Toriel repeats, and you realize you weren't listening.

You begin to sign, but realize that Toriel won't understand, and switch to wearing as confused a face as possible.

She repeats, "I hope this room suits you well enough. Do get some rest, my child."

You nod, and walk into the guest room. You know all too well what happens if you try to stay. As soon as Toriel leaves, you dart out into the staircase--no sense wasting time, after all. She's waiting somehow--she always is. You insist to leave the Ruins. She insists ~~like always~~ upon protecting you, keeping you safe, and for the first time, you see the fear in her eyes--she's more scared than you were, the first time. But your thinking ends when with her usual line: "Prove to me that you are strong enough to survive."

Her battle, though difficult, is never life-threatening ~~except that once~~. Toriel has too much control over her magic to hurt you. Nevertheless, today you find yourself getting burned often anyway.

~~It's hard to see flames through a face full of tears.~~

Eventually, she spares you. She kneels and gives you a great, sad hug. _I'll be back!_ you sign, knowing full well she can't understand you. _You'll see. I'll be back with everyone else!_

Looking you in the eye, Mom says, "Goodbye, my child."

...

.

...

You leave the relative comfort of the ruins. When you enter the next room, Flowey yells something cryptic at you, and you have to tune him out to stop more tears. Besides, you stopped listening to this specific spiel a long time ago.

After you're finished hyperventilating, Chara asks you a question in a single word. _Ready?_

You pause for a moment, then reply with a quick _yes_.

Snowdin awaits, after all.


End file.
